1) I jumped on the Chia bandwagon and added some to my morning delight (plain greek yogurt with fresh strawberries):
They crunch like poppy seeds when you take a bite then turn to gel as they sit on your teeth. They don't change the taste at all, and are supposed to give you tons of energy. I didn't feel a difference in my energy level, but they did fill me up. Highly recommended!
2) Phil and I got a last minute babysitter offer (our babysitter is awesome and lets us know when she's free so we can snatch her up) and since we are on a diet decided to go to a movie instead of out to eat as we normally do. We saw The Hunger Games.
(gosh, she's gorgeous, right?)
It was great. I knew absolutely NOTHING about the story. About five minutes in, I leaned over to Phil and said "Is this set in the present, past or future?" Seriously I knew nothing about it.
3) For those of you out there who think it's practically a mortal sin to see a movie based on a book before actually reading the book, well I just ordered the book to read. Ok? Am I absolved?
4) As for the 17 Day Diet bandwagon...it's pretty awesome. I have detailed everything we've eaten here, and we have both lost 5% of our body weight in a week. We feel healthier, leaner, more energized and are sleeping better than ever. We have never eaten so well (read: never eaten so many vegetables) in all our married life. Even when this cycle ends, I want to continue incorporating mad veggies into our normal diet. It takes some prep work and planning, but it is so worth it!
5) Alexander heard that it's really cool to get top teeth, and so we've all been on the cranky baby-not sleeping well-take teether toys everywhere-worrying about Tylenol effects-teeth popping bandwagon. It's been ugly. But those teeth that finally came through. Opposite of ugly. So stinkin' cute!
6) Lately I have struggled a lot with feelings of inadequacy. I look around at other moms who can home school, craft, cook, write, remodel their homes, and seem to have all the time and talents to do everything well. When I think about my hobbies, all I have is exercise and blogging. How boring is that? I am trying to remember the words of the wise Danielle Bean who said that we should never compare our interiors to another's exterior. And picturing those "perfect" moms with a messy house and wild children does help make me feel better ;) Because we never know what is really going on behind the glossy appeal of the photos they choose to display. And it's not right to compare our most miserable days with their best portrayals.
7) Lent has been really good this year. And by good I mean hard. And by hard I mean fruitful. And by fruitful I mean good. And by good I mean hard ;)
How is your Lent going?
Have a great weekend everybody. Happy Palm Sunday!
6) Lately I have struggled a lot with feelings of inadequacy. I look around at other moms who can home school, craft, cook, write, remodel their homes, and seem to have all the time and talents to do everything well. When I think about my hobbies, all I have is exercise and blogging. How boring is that? I am trying to remember the words of the wise Danielle Bean who said that we should never compare our interiors to another's exterior. And picturing those "perfect" moms with a messy house and wild children does help make me feel better ;) Because we never know what is really going on behind the glossy appeal of the photos they choose to display. And it's not right to compare our most miserable days with their best portrayals.
7) Lent has been really good this year. And by good I mean hard. And by hard I mean fruitful. And by fruitful I mean good. And by good I mean hard ;)
How is your Lent going?
Have a great weekend everybody. Happy Palm Sunday!
You are totally tempting me to try that diet with 2 weeks left until my wedding!
ReplyDeleteThose teeth ARE cute!
I feel as though I could have written this post, or most of it. I have read The Hunger Games and saw the movie this week. I would be curious to hear your reaction of doing the reverse because I think I would have been completely lost without reading the book first.
ReplyDeleteI admire your willpower for the 17 day Diet. I could never give up bread and beer. So the book sits on my desk and serves as a coaster. Being skinny probably isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Love the teeth, Mr. Alexander! The process to get those chompers is tough on everyone though. Miss Gianna is our worst teether so far and she just keeps popping more of them. She never seems to just get one at a time either. This last round was four at once. blah.
ReplyDeleteGood for you on the 17 day. Haven't looked into it, but I should check it out. While I don't really feel like I need a 'diet' right now, eating more healthy would be good. Right now my focus is on toning up my 'problem' areas. Um, we'll see how that goes.
Lent has been tough. As in there's a newborn with needs, a toddler with teeth and very busy and big kids that are going thru numerous changes. So that has led it to be hard, but I'm not so sure on the fruitful.
Thanks for the reminder in #6. The Mommy inadequacy seems to go in waves here.
i only have one so far and i'm with you - my only hobbies now are exercising and blogging....
ReplyDeleteYeah, I struggle with the last one too! I try to remember that, if it is on blogs, we all really just show our best sides and not the messes! I was blog hopping the other day and someone had a picture of her daughter's room. It was perfect, then she posted a pic of what it looks like 90% of the time . . .it was a mess! It just reminded me that that is life. The pretty, perfect pictures are not. In real life, I struggle most with comparing myself with moms who have more kids (I am surrounded by moms with 6, 8, 12 kids) and home school and, etc, etc . . . I do not know how they do it!
ReplyDeleteGreat job with the 17 day diet!
Stinkin' cute is right!!!! Love it, that's the perfect picture to show those cute teefers!!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the diet!!!
Inadequate? Who are you kidding? You run. Need I say more? You run lots, like miles and miles...and have 5 kids!! I see you running and exercising and always, always feel guilty.
Why do we do that to ourselves?
Do you want the book back? I have one more chapter and I'll send it back so you can re-read it.
Geesh, I try to show the bad things too....like maybe I should have showed the puke and not just the bucket?
Nothing perfect here...
I tried commenting this morning but got a weird error message so if you get that comment just delete one of them...anyhow what i said was.
ReplyDelete1. Chia seeds? what is with this trend that is everywhere all of a sudden? I am sorry but it looks gross to me. I'll pass.
2. You don't need to diet. You look like a stick already.
3. Hunger games--I think its the future not sure--my kids keep talking about it. They fill me in on this popular stuff lol. Apparently everyone in my sons 4th grade class even read this. weird hunh?
4. as far as talents, you are talented at being a ggreat mom and juggler of all things. I don't know you do it all with work and kids and everything. I have no talents myself. I can't cook, bake, decorate, scrapbook, sew, craft, anything...I do not homeschool and am so bad 2 of my kids even go to public school...lol. My little kids at home are usually always messy and the baby currently probbaly has a wet diaper right now..lol.My house is 99% of the time a complete mess. Its only clean when I threaten to punish the children if THEY don't clean for me. Otherwise how could I do it all? My laundry pile is to the ceiling...nothing is ever ironed, I am always late for everything etc...I could go on but you get the idea. The only talent I have is getting pregnant lol.
congrats on the great results from your diet! you are an amazing woman, don't ever think otherwise! your baby is really cute with those teeth!
ReplyDeleteI just finished The Hunger Games, and now I'm starting on Catching Fire. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, and now I'd love to see the movie. Sadly, we do not have an awesome babysitter . . . in fact, none of the girls in the neighborhood want to watch a baby under 1 year old. What gives with that? Our baby is the best behaved one of the bunch! ;-)
ReplyDeleteThose teeth really are cute. Baby has two teeth on the bottom and only one came through on the top, so she kind of looks like a little snaggle tooth hillbilly. (Said with love to all the hillbillies in my family, of course!)
And it's funny that you say you feel inadequate because every time I read your blog I feel like a slug, lol! I don't even really blog faithfully anymore, so I can't tell you where my time goes . . . mostly to changing diapers, I think!
And I've decided that I'll just be fat forever and make other people feel better about themselves. ;-)
Those 2 front teeth are adorbs.
ReplyDeleteAnd your #6...so true. If I weren't so lazy, I'd take a picture of our play room right now and email it to you. Surely it would lift your spirits!
#7- perfect description of lent :)
I think about Danielle's "don't compare anyone's exterior to your interior" all the time, too! What a great conference that was!
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm impressed by the weight loss. I'm trying to lose weight slowly and "organically" so it will stay off.
ReplyDeleteTeeth: C-U-T-E.
We also went to see The Hunger Games, and I think you'll find that the books round out the experience. If there was ever a movie you *could* see first, this would be it--they did a good job sticking to the story.
I ordered The Hunger Games book this week and have been devouring it (bad pun?) since it arrived. I'm going to enjoy seeing the movie when we get a babysitter sometime, although who knows when that will be! Ha!
ReplyDeleteI feel inadequate just doing the few things I do - home schooling is my full-time job and then whatever I have left after that and the day-to-day household stuff I've got to parcel out as I see best. We are getting back to exercising, which is great, but that leaves little time for me to do anything else. So I get you! Still, doing what you are doing for family and having your exercise and blogging seems like a full plate to me! Don't ever feel inadequate because you're not (and your family would be the first to say so). :-)
I love this post Colleen! So much good stuff and you made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteUm, on the inadequacy bit, you are raising 5 beautiful kiddos...that alone is admirable. Should we add in that you work? Or that you are in great athletic shape? Or that you write a great blog and make people like me laugh???
Love those teeth and I am going to check out your links. I might want to join your bandwagon too!
xo
I just popped over from Jen's blog to yours for the very first time. I am going to go back and read your posts about the 17 day diet and your fitness routine. I have been contemplating green smoothies. I think we need them. Chia seeds sound really healthy and they are in the gluten-free bread I eat.
ReplyDeleteI am with you on the feelings of inadequacy. I feel like I can't accomplish anything these days. Haven't really deep cleaned in a while, the kids play area? disaster, laundry pile never under control, and my blogging has virtually stopped. Not sure what I am really doing with all my time because I certainly feel busy each day. But all those perfect, Catholic blogger mommies out there just put me to shame.
#7 Lent this year is kinda ho-hum. Last year was as you described - awesome good and hard. This year, not so much though I have read an incredible book that has been helping with my feelings of inadequacy - Interior Freedom by Fr. Jaques Philippe. Highly recommend. So glad I found your blog!
Ditto to all the other comments about you feeling inadequate. We all feel that way at times. (In fact the post I wrote about it was called "Those perfect Catholic moms are killing me." LOL.) You amaze me. You make me smile. And you encourage me to try a little harder. So for that I thank you. :-)
ReplyDelete